Man faces federal charge for explosive device at Beaumont home

A 27-year-old Beaumont man is charged in federal court with possession of an unregistered destructive device after the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted a controlled detonation at a south Beaumont home.

Mark Rudd was charged in the criminal complaint Friday at the federal courthouse in downtown Beaumont. An affidavit linked to Rudd's charge is still sealed.

The FBI Beaumont office advised residents near Dixie Drive and College Street of a controlled detonation in the area as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. Rudd was arrested as part of the investigation, but few details had been provided from his arrest until the formal charge Friday.

A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office released the following statement Friday afternoon:

According to information presented in court, on Feb. 8, 2018, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Rudd’s residence in the 4800 block of Belmont Street in Beaumont, Texas. Inside the residence, investigators located a cooler in a hall closet containing two suspected destructive devices. One was a 2-liter bottle filled with an unknown viscous liquid with wires extending from the top of the bottle. One of the wires connected to an unknown device inside the liquid. Because the device could not be safely identified, it was destroyed in accordance with safety procedures.

The second device was safely removed from the container and dismantled by federal agents. The second device consisted of a bottle of match heads, a friction plate or strike pad, and a pyrotechnic device with a fuse, which was duct taped to bottles of butane and capsaicin dog repellant. Inside Rudd’s bedroom investigators found match sticks with the red ignition material removed, two pyrotechnic devices, electronic rocker switches, an electronic timer with wires connected to a sensor, assorted wires, and various diameters of pipe, and a ballistic vest with a neck protector attachment. Investigators also found a 21-page notebook with detailed writing on explosives and explosives construction. At the top of the first page was a handwritten note stating, “This is why you should not piss me off kabluey Chaos.”